autochthon

noun

1. (formal)The earliest inhabitant of an area; an indigenous person.

   “The Foreigner by his Intercourse with an Autocthon has an Autocthon Progeny. Wherever a type is found in the population of a country, there it is still found in spite of innumerable crossings; […]”

   “This fact points to the great sensitivity on the part of these refugees for the autochthon’s opinion and attitude concerning them. […] Diagram 7 which tells us something of the way in which the refugee experiences the relationship between himself and the autochthon, leaves no doubt of the refugees’ feeling of inferiority.”

   “One who comes to live in such a district does not separate his life entirely from the autochthon social reality, but the two realities, autochthon and immigrant, are not simple extensions of one another. In fact, there is a socio-cultural barrier behind which the autochthon population seeks protection from the colorful clusters of foreigners around it.”

   “The autochthons’ defenders had sought to endow them with a special status in Poland, the better to buttress Poland’s claims to the Recovered Territories. In spite of these efforts, the autochthons remained a small but persistent problem for officials and the population at large.”

2. A large mass of rock in the place of its original formation, rooted to its basement (foundation rock) as opposed to an allochthon or nappe which has shifted from the place of formation; an autochthonous rock formation.

   “These rocks are lithically identical with the Normanskill in the allochthon but differ from the correlative Hortonville or Walloomsac Slates […] of the autochthon. […] In the light of Warthin's findings and the absence of evidence to the contrary, the pelitic rocks that geometrically overlie the Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate rocks in the Pine Plains (E10) area (Knopf, 1962) are included in the autochthon.”

   “The Mesozoic rock units in the Békés-Doboz trough appear to correlate to similar age rock units of the Bihor autochthon in the Apuseni Mountains of Romania rather than to rock units of the Codru nappe system. Rock units of the Bihor autochthon differ from rock units of the Codru nappe system in 3 main aspects: […]”

3. A term referring to mortals and immortals who have sprung, fully-formed, from the soil, rocks and trees. Mythical characters, such as Erichthonius (a son of Hephaestus and Gaia, and raised by Athena), and Cecrops I, are two most well-known examples.